A method and an apparatus for controlling task execution are disclosed in the present invention which relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, addressing the problem that power consumption of a terminal in standby mode is wasted because tasks of the terminal in a standby state are fixed and corresponding time periods cannot be flexibly set for different tasks. The method includes: receiving standby state parameters sent by a terminal management module; configuring the terminal according to the standby parameters so that the terminal enters a sleeping state; enabling a timer to start timing; stopping timing when the time of the timer reaches the time point at which a current task will be executed; configuring the terminal according to working state parameters of the terminal so that the terminal enters a working state; and receiving paging information sent by the terminal management module.